Since the game of basketball was first developed the structural integrity of both the rim and the backboard has been a problem. As the average player has become taller and bigger over the years, the problem of bent rims and damaged backboards due to slam-dunks and player impact has substantially increased.
The above problems in fact became so severe that in 1967 the National Collegiate Athletic Association passed a "no-dunk" rule. Some ten years later in 1977, however, the "pro-dunk" rule was voted back in as a crowd pleasing gesture and to add new excitement to the game.
Tempered glass backboards have come into wide spread use because of their stiffness which allows a ball to remain alive when contacting the playing surface. This, however, compounds the problem in that blitz plays by over zealous players not only can bend rims but they also shatter backboards with some regularity. To replace a rim or backboard is not only expensive in and of itself but during televised ball games the delay time in making repairs becomes extremely costly.
Spring loaded rims and break away devices have been developed in an effort to overcome the above mentioned problems. First, the players immediately know that they are playing on a "funny rim" and not a standard rim thus immediately psyching the players which invariably affects their game performance. Also the stiffness and thus rebound characteristics of the rim is not the same as the standard rim and therefore adds even further to the degradation of the players performance.